Toronto hematologist Nancy Olivieri participated in research on deferiprone, an iron-chelation drug for thalassaemia, beginning in 1989; the work included a clinical trial partly funded by Apotex. During the trial, she became concerned that the drug was ineffective for some patients and reported those concerns to the research ethics board and Apotex. The board instructed her to inform participants, but Apotex disputed her interpretation of the evidence and argued that a confidentiality agreement barred disclosure. In 1996, the company threatened legal action if she warned patients; Olivieri disclosed her concerns, and Apotex ended its part of the study.
In 1998, Olivieri and seven co-authors published further findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, reporting that deferiprone was associated with progressive hepatic fibrosis. The conclusions were later challenged using data from Apotex-conducted trials, and the drug was approved in more than 50 countries, including the United States through the FDA's accelerated-approval program in 2011, but not in Canada according to the source. A Canadian Association of University Teachers investigation also found that researcher Gideon Koren had anonymously sent disparaging letters about Olivieri; DNA evidence linked him to the letters, and he was reprimanded. Olivieri received the AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility in 2009 and the John Maddox Prize in 2023.
